OK, I know a lot of posts have been about Nintendo and/or RPG's but bear with me, cause this one has me pretty excited.  Super Mario RPG:  Legend of the Seven Stars was, is, and probably always will be my favorite video game.  It's pretty rare to find a cartridge for it (my uncle lost his years ago...) and emulators are illegal (yeah, I actually follow that one) so a new chance to play this amazing game has me pretty psyched.

First off, the game itself was originally released in 1996 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It's a turnbased Role Playing Game, but don't count it out for that if you're not a fan of the old school turnbase. Super Mario RPG helped establish a lot of the traits that most RPGs still use today. Like an interactive battle system, for example. Instead of just hitting Y or A on your control pad and watching Mario attack, a well timed button press would boost the attack, whatever that attack may be. Enemies can be seen on the field, so no random encounters (SMRPG is one of the-if not the first-RPG to use this tactic). The Graphics are gorgeous for a SNES game. Much of the environments are made with ACM (Advanced Computer Modeling) techniques. This means the environmets look and react like a 3D environment when they in fact are not. This is one of the best looking games on the SNES rivaled by few, including the Donkey Kong Country series, and Killer Instinct.

The best part of the game is the story. If you haven't played the game, then I won't ruin it for you, but it starts out like your standard Mario game ends (Bowser kindaps Peach, Mario chases. Battle in the castle, Mario reclaims the Princess). As soon as Mario rescues the Princess, events (awesome events) begin unfolding spelling apocalyptic doom for the Mushroom Kingdom. It's well written, and the humor is what you've come to expect from a Mario RPG, (but also remember that this is where it started, and where it's best if you ask me).

 The main reason I am excited for this (as many fans are, I'm sure) is that like Earthbound's rerelease, it could mean a number of different things. There are rumors of a remake of the original for the DS and even of a true sequel to the game. While the Mario and Luigi series and even the Paper Mario series all follow the same basic formula of SMRPG: LotSS, none of these games actually advance it's plot. This is mainly due to copyright issues Square-Enix has with some of the characters. SMRPG was one of the last games released by Square for Nintendo until 2002's Chocobo Land: A Game of Dice. But with news of SMRPG's rerelease on the Virtual Console, and Square-Enix's recent (and abundant) activity on the DS, who knows what could be forged?

Right now no release date has been given for the North America (or anywhere outside Japan, that is) but expect it to hit Japan this June for 900 Wii Points. It has an E-Everyone rating from the ESRB, and because its a SNES title, you will only be able to play it with a Classic Controller or a Gamecube controller.

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